Microsoft stunned its investors on Thursday, announcing the first broad layoffs in its history and offering a pessimistic forecast for the second half of its fiscal year.
Rather than issuing its second-quarter results in the customary fashion after the market closed, Microsoft rushed out the news Thursday morning that it will lay off up to 5,000 of its 94,000 employees over the next 18 months, including 1,400 people Thursday. The layoffs span across research, sales, finance and technology roles, the company said.
The direct impact of falling personal-computer sales, which roiled Intel last week, were evident in Microsoft's results, as sales of its PC operating-system software dove 8 percent to $3.98 billion from $4.33 billion last year.